


Mass Effect: Resolution

by uncajerf



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-11
Updated: 2015-11-10
Packaged: 2018-04-30 23:38:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5184077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uncajerf/pseuds/uncajerf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>Minor spoiler alert</b> for this story as well as the game <i>Mass Effect 3</i>: The following story intends to resolve the so-called 'Destroy Ending', obviously modifying some of the presumed events in the official ending video.  As indicated in the Tags, it features a female Shepard, whose love interest is Samantha Traynor; Garrus, Liara, and Tali have survived, but neither Kaidan nor Ashley will be present.  If any of these might spoil your concept of a ‘perfect’ ending, DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.  In addition, no attempt is made to wrap up all supposed plotlines; that would be impossible, given the varied endings, not to mention their myriad interpretations.</p><p>Finally, note that although this first chapter could be rated 'T' -- 'G' but for a swear-word or two -- if there is interest, further chapters are planned that will likely evolve all the way up to 'Explicit'.  So, this is why I have not applied any as yet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mass Effect: Resolution

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: All characters owned by EA/Bioware; certain dialogue written by Bioware staff writers.

_Artificial gravity._   Turns out it saved my life – or at least prolonged it, until Joker and Liara, along with Tali, this time, found me.  Should there have been none still holding close what little atmosphere remained after the destruction of the Crucible’s power source on the Citadel, the fact that I’d lost my helmet – though still miraculously escaping major injury in the explosion – would have killed me, finding myself in otherwise airless space.

Even so, the rubble nearly buried me.  Again fortunately, my locator signal still worked, despite my armour previously suffering major trauma inflicted by a near-direct hit from a Reaper beam – which was where I lost my helmet and half my suit.  But it had been designed to withstand significant damage, after all – the objective being to protect the wearer from lack of breathable atmosphere as well as combat damage.

My two-way radio earpiece may or may not have been working.  I’m sure I didn’t hear Joker’s frantic calls in any case, although they seemed to echo in my mind sometime after:

_“Commander Shepard?  Do you copy?  Commander!  Answer me, damn it!  Commander Shepard…”_

 

Admiral Hackett’s order rang out through Normandy’s intercoms: _“All fleets!  The Crucible is armed.  Disengage and head to the rendezvous point.  I repeat: Disengage and get the hell out of here.”_

“Joker, listen.”  In the cockpit, Garrus put a tridactyl hand on the pilot’s shoulder.  “We have to go.”

“Damn it.”  The young man ceased frantic pawing at glowing transparent orange flight and propulsion screens, stopped on another semi-transparent comm display; stared at the weak signal.  The locator blip pulsed insipidly at the C4, ‘condition critical’, rate of one every other second.

“The Crucible is triggered,” the turian went on.  “EDI confirms an explosion where Shepard was.  She’d want us to esc—”

“J-Joker, don’t you d-dare!”  Standing behind the pilot’s seat alongside the turian, unshed tears filled Specialist Traynor’s beautiful deep brown eyes.  Accent broke with emotion.  “W‑We have to get h-her.”

“Yes!”  The pilot’s hands flew again.  “I won’t leave her.  _We_ can’t leave her!  Not as long as we see that signal.  _Commander Shepard?_ ”

Garrus gave in without further protest.  “You’re right – to hell with orders.  Find her, Joker!”

“I’m trying!  It’s just…  EDI, help me.”  Moreau’s fingers danced, virtual screens appearing, keyed, disappearing again faster than seemed possible.

Soft voice of the ship’s nearby sentient AI and co-pilot responded, “I am helping, Jeff.”

“There!  I have her!  Damn it, she’s been spaced again.  But she’s still breathing – somehow.  Get to the airlock!  I’ll get us in close.”

 

Liara emerged, breathing mask in place, followed by Tali, as always in full spacesuit.  Quarian and asari leapt from Normandy’s ramp, scrambled for purchase on the heap of rubble; low grav meant awkward movement, even in power-assisted suits.  Still, they were taken somewhat by surprise; didn’t realise that a little gravity and atmosphere yet remained on the severely damaged heart of the Crucible.  Hopes therefore lifted that Shepard could survive – for a time, anyway.  Liara excitedly broadcast the news.

EDI’s even tone, in helm or earpiece, directed, _“Bear left and ahead four hundred and twelve metres.”_

 _“Hurry!”_ urged Joker.

Neither non-human woman required compelling, their own exigency such that they did not reply, much less take offence.  Yet they struggled, immediately encountering obstacles: A spaghetti of twisted titanium-vanadium alloy girders; piles of shattered _alamar_ concrete; chemically and thermally toughened glass; silently arcing conduits; unrecognisable detritus.  Reapers – those not engaged by myriad galactic forces arrayed against them – still mercilessly tore at it and the attached Citadel as both structures orbited high above ravaged Earth.

“Goddess!” Liara cried, breathless.   “We can’t… get through!  Too much… rubble.”

“Is there… another way?” Tali enquired, accent strained, seemingly more pronounced.

_“How should I know?” Joker snapped._ _“I can’t see you.  All I know is the signal’s getting weaker – Shepard’s dying!”_

_“And the Crucible is energising,”_ added Garrus, needlessly.

“We’re trying,” Liara responded.

Traynor intervened: _“P-Please…  All of you…  I’ll w-watch the comms and d-direct Liara and T-Tali.  J-Joker, you fly.  EDI, p-please enhance relevant systems.  Garrus, can you b‑blast them a path?”_

 _“So close?”_   Vakarian had re-occupied his familiar position at Normandy’s main battery. _“Maybe… Yes—”_

 _“WATCH OUT!”_ Traynor shouted.  _“A ship just exploded – debris might be coming!”_

Such events could be ‘seen’, even as nothing more than the sudden disappearance of a vessel’s signature on comm stations; but other ship sensors warned of space debris, since even dust, at near-light speeds, posed a significant hazard to hull integrity.

Still, nothing could be heard, despite the chaos surrounding the spacewalking pair.  Backlit by a lurid fiery glow from Earth in one direction, limitless space in all others, floating wreckage swirled; cannon fire pierced the void; fighters darted soundlessly; fearsome red Reaper weapons sliced through starships, even as the lobster-like monsters grabbed others, crushing one or two more like mice in a fist before they managed to disengage, wink into subspace.  Meanwhile, inside the gigantic wheel of the Crucible, red-orange flame, punctuated by blue-white electrical arcs, built at its crosshair centre.

Liara glanced up just in time to shove Tali out of the way of a spinning piece of flotsam.  Unable to see it herself, the hood of quarian’s spacesuit – not to mention faceplate – blocked her peripheral vision.  Low gravity, however, saved Tali from a fall into the jagged rubble that could have compromised her suit.  Even so, both spent several precious minutes dodging ejecta.

At the Crucible’s core the massive ball of energy released.  Electric flame roiled over the duo, buffeting them.  Curiously, however – concussion not nearly as powerful as expected – it did no harm; they felt nothing else beyond what might be experienced in a moderate windstorm, in addition to a slight tingle, like discharging static.  The Normandy, though it rocked slightly and systems, lighting, flickered as if suffering a power brownout, remained similarly unaffected.

 _“Shit!”_ Joker yelled.  _“Shit, shit!  Was that the Crucible?  It fired?  And we’re still alive?  EDI!  What’s going on?”_ The ship’s AI did not respond immediately, causing her lover to become even more agitated.  _“EDI!?”_   Joker must have glanced toward the co-pilot’s seat where EDI should be. _“Commander?  Someone answer m—”_

_“I am all r-right, Jeff.  I felt… str-range, for-r a moment.  I can now help you to locate Shepar-rd.  I will enhance the signal.”_

_“Don’t do that again!”_ Moreau scolded.

_“I did not do an-nything on p-purpose, Jeff.”_

Crackling bolts of red energy enveloped Reaper after Reaper; they ceased firing, curled up as if the lobsters they resembled had been dropped in boiling water; began drifting, apparently inert.

Garrus refocussed everyone. _“I can maybe use a Javelin to get at her.  But, Liara, Tali, you can’t be too close – Shepard neither.  Where is she?”_

 _“Go right,”_ Traynor directed.  _“She’s less than two hundred m-metres.”_

 _“Way too close,”_ the turian advised.  _“EDI, can you downgrade the Thanix – limit its power for a more precise strike?  I can’t calibrate that fast—”_

 _“Y-Yes,”_ EDI replied.  _“I can r-reduce the amount of e-e-eezzo injected into the tr‑rigger-r.”_  Cautioned, _“But you must all hur-r-ry – the Cr-ru-ucible is getting r-r-ready to fir‑re ag-g-gain-n.”_

Amid everything, no one seemed to notice the worsening glitch in the AI’s voice.

A glance by the two spacewalkers confirmed that a different kind of energy congealed at the giant device’s crosshair; doubtless, another discharge built, this time a more sinister ball of yellow luminescence, perhaps not as benign to organic life and electronic systems as the previous.

Back inside Normandy, hull thrummed as the ship’s cannon – albeit only a single of its twin Thanixes – armed.  Frigate shuddered as the weapon fired.  Tali and Liara felt the heat of its molten metal alloy projectile; discharged at a significant fraction of the speed of light, it solidified as it struck the piled debris, smashing through.  This time partial sound carried along with concussive force; rubble beneath their weighted boots shifted, broke apart.  Liara stumbled, nearly succumbing to near-weightlessness before Tali grabbed her.

“Watch out!” warned the quarian.

The Asari scientist steadied.  “I’m okay.  Where’s Shepard?”

Traynor spoke, dulcet voice strangled: _“She’s… g-getting f-farther away!”_

“I see her!” Tali cried.  “But she’s on the other pile – the one that just broke off!”

Nearby, the Crucible’s light burgeoned, slowly igniting at each junction where Citadel shared contact.

“Tali!  We can jump it.  Then I’ll _Throw_ you and Shepard back across!”

“Let’s do it!”

Several voices in their respective ears unnecessarily continued to urge speed.

In a few near-weightless leaps, each bounced toward a jumbled pile of concrete and beams, began digging, pulling at shattered blocks which ordinarily would have been impossible to move physically.  Biotic energy blossomed shocking blue as Liara tossed huge chunks aside using _Lift_ as well as _Throw_.  At first only able to make out Shepard’s torso, hips, N7 dog tags lying askew on battered chest plate, soon her head – horribly bruised and bloody – came into view.  She looked… dead.

“Traynor!” Liara shouted.  “We have her!  Is she…?”  Using her own omnitool, scanned for signs of life; weak, but there.

“ _Oh, thank God.  Y-Yes…  According to the m-monitor, she’s still alive.  P-Please get her out…”_

All crew, shipboard and spacewalking, could now feel the Crucible’s power; brightness increased as intensity grew along with the sphere’s size.

“Hold on to her,” Liara instructed, draping the limp form across the little quarian’s shoulders.  “She won’t be too heavy in this gravity.”

“I’ve got her.  Get us over!”

Biotics flowered again, this time enwrapping Tali, tossing her across the slowly spreading two-metre-plus gap.  Tali fought to avoid tumbling too far while keeping hold of Shepard’s mercifully lightened body – low gravity and anxiety doubtless affecting Liara’s control.  Continuing under her precious burden to Normandy’s airlock, the asari followed, used _Lift_ to assist her own leap; without biotics and the decreased gravity, they would not have made it to where other crew pulled them inside just as the Crucible’s sphere suddenly faded, died – and something else ascended.

_“I s-s-ense all ab-b-board, J-J-eff.”_

Having no time to prepare for hyperspace, Joker’s arms flapped, instruments flashing.   Behind the ship, pale yellow energy burst from several points at once on the Crucible; focussing on the centre, it almost instantly erupted into a massive stream, shooting into space as Joker’s hands practically became invisible.  Desperately, he gunned the Normandy’s conventional drive, trying to outrun the blast.

Despite the crew’s best effort, they failed.


End file.
